Mr. Knight on the Economy of Bees. 235 
Passing through one of my orchards rather late in the even- 
ing in the month of August, in the year 1801 , 1 observed that 
several bees passed me in a direct line from the hives in my 
own garden to those in the garden of a cottager, which was 
about a hundred yards distant from it. As it was consider- 
ably later in the evening than the time when bees usually 
cease to labour, I concluded that something more than ordi- 
nary was going forward. Going first to my own garden, and 
then to that of the cottager, I found a very considerable degree 
of bustle and agitation to prevail in one hive in each : every 
bee, as it arrived, seemed to be stopt and questioned, at the 
mouth of each hive ; but I could not discover any thing like 
actual resistance, or hostility, to take place ; though I was 
much inclined to believe the intercourse between the hives to 
be hostile and predatory. The same kind of intercourse con- 
tinued, in a greater or less degree, during eight succeeding 
days, and though I watched them very closely, nothing occur- 
red to induce me to suppose that their intercourse was not of an 
amicable kind. On the tenth morning, however, their friend- 
ship ended, as sudden and violent friendships often do, in a 
quarrel ; and they fought most furiously ; and after this there 
was no more visiting. 
Two years subsequent to this period I observed the same kind 
of intercourse to take place between two hives of my own 
bees, which were situated about two hundred yards distant 
from each other: they passed from each hive to the other 
just as they did in the preceding instance,and a similar degree 
of agitation was observable. In this instance, however, their 
friendship appeared to be of much shorter duration, for they 
